Congress is the legislative, or lawmaking, branch of the
federal government. It is a bicameral (made up of two chambers) legislature
that consists of the House of Representatives and the Senate. The
Constitution gives the two houses similar powers. There are two main reasons
why Congress has two houses, rather than a single-house, unicameral system.
They are:

(A). To keep a historical tradition because the framers of
the Constitution were familiar with the British Parliament, which consists of
two houses.

(B). A bicameral legislature offers a way of resolving a
major conflict in the writing of the Constitution concerning population
representation.

The Senate, the Upper House in Congress,
consists of 100 Senators. In this house of Congress, 2 members from each
state represent that state (regardless of population size there are always 2
members).Each senator serves for a 6 year term.(There are elections for one-third
of the U.S.
Senators every 6 years). The members of †the U.S. Senate each represent their state,
BUT they make laws for the country as a whole.

The House of Representatives, the Lower House of
Congress, is not a continuing body. This means that every 2 years its entire
membership is renewed. The House of Reps consists of 435 members, (called
Representatives, Congresspersons, Congressmen, and/or Congresswomen) plus
delegates from the District of Columbia,
Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, and the Virgin
Islands. The amount of Representatives of each state is
determined by that states population (unlike Senators).The way it works is,
according to a states population it has so many Congressional Districts
(CDs).Then from each CD one member is elected for a 2 year term, But
every state is guaranteed 1 Representative. (so if a state had such a low
population that technically it would have no Representatives, it would still be
aloud to have one Representative)In the House of Reps, each member represents
his/her district (like Senators represent their state), but they make laws for
the entire U.S.

Questions:

1). How long is the term of a Representative? (SB 217)

2). How is the number of Representatives per state
determined (what does a Representative represent)? (SB 217)

3). What are 5 other areas that supply delegates to the
House besides the 50 states?

IV. The Powers of Congress

Summary:

Congress only has the powers that are specifically stated
(or implied) in the Constitution. Most of these powers are stated in Article 1,
Section 8 of the Constitution.

Powers of both the House and Senate: (SB 220-221)

1. Impose taxes
(SB 220)

2. Declare
war (SB 220)

3. Import tariffs (SB 220)

4. Punish
counterfeiters (SB 220)

5. Establish and
regulate armed forces (SB 220)

6. Collect taxes
(SB 220)

7. Spend money
(SB 220)

8. Override
presidential veto (SB 220)

9. Regulate
interstate commerce and international trade (SB 220)

Powers of the Senate: (SB 221)

1.Confirm Presidential Appointments

2.Ratify treaties

3.Try impeached President, federal judges, or
justices (Senate sits in judgment while House just votes for whether the
president should be tried or not)

2). What are two powers held solely by the US House of
Representatives?

3). How does Congress attempt to get rid of a president?

V. Committees

Committees exist in both the House of Representatives and
the Senate in order speed up the process of viewing, reviewing, and acting on
bills and resolutions. In fact, most of the actual work of legislating is
performed by these committees. There are numerous types of committees each with
an important job to make congress work. Standing committees (SB 232-233)
are permanent and are responsible for legislation within a certain subject
area. Special and select committees (SB 233) are established to
investigate specific problems, and are broken up after they give their reports.
Joint committees (SB 233)are made of
senators and representatives to attack important national problems. Conference
committees (SB 233) are made up from both houses, and they settle disputes
and make compromises between themselves. The majority party mathematically ends
up with the majority of seat positions in each committee. The leader or chair
of a committee is decided by party and seniority rule (SB 234), based on
the length of service previously committed. The most important committees are
the Ways and Means (taxation), Appropriations (government fund distributor),
Budget, Foreign Relations, and the Rules committees(SB 222, SB
233-234, SB 237) which controls calendar and floor action committees.

Questions:

1). Are standing committees permanent? (SB 232)

2). What are the other types of committees? (SB 233)

3). What decides who becomes committee chair? (SB 234)

4). What committee controls the floor? (SB 233-234)

VI. A Bill to a Law (SB 237-238)

For a bill to become a law it must go through many steps.
These steps ensure that both houses of Congress and the President approve the
bill. :

1. A bill is introduced by a member of the
Senate or the House of Representatives (often at the request of the President).

2. Different committees in that house study it
and then decide what revisions they need to make. After they make the bill the
way they want it, they approve it.

3. Then it is sent to the floor for debate
(between the committees) and amendments (changes) are made.

4. Once the bill is approved by that chamber
(chamber of congress, either the House or the Senate), it is sent to the other
where it will undergo study in committees and floor vote.

5. When both houses have passed the bill, a
conference committee (see III. A.) consisting of members from both House and
Senate come together to work out differences between the Senate and House of
Representatives versions.

6. Bill is sent back to the Senate and the House
of Representatives for final approval.

7.
When bill is approved by both chambers, it is sent to the president who can let
the bill become the law without his signature, allow it to become law by
signing it, or vetoing it by returning it to Congress because he doesnít want
it to pass?

8. Congress may override the veto by 2/3
majority vote in both the Senate and H.O.R., but this cannot happen if the
President has pocket-vetoed the bill by refusing to sign it during the 10 last days
Congress is in session.

VII. Leaders of the House of Representatives and the
Senate

Within House and Senate there are leaders also. In the House
of Representatives there is the Speaker of House of Representatives (SB 235).
If something happened to the vice president and president so that they both
could not serve office, the Speaker of House of Representatives is the next one
in line to be president.(So, if both the president and vice president are
assassinated, impeached, etc, the Speaker will become president)In the Senate
the majority leader (SB 234-236) is the most senior member of the
majority party and the most influential person in Senate. He has access to
information, control over communications and agendas, and knowledge of
institutions. The majority whip assists the leader. The minority
leader (SB 112, SB 234, SB 236-237) and whip in Senate also choose
its leader and assistant leader.

Questions:

1). Can you list 5 jobs the Speaker of the House can do? (SB
235)

2). Who is the most senior and most influential member of
the Senate? (SB 236)

3). What does a whip do? (SB 236)

VIII. Definitions

Some definitions related to the legislative branch include:

Filibuster(SB
222, SB 303, SB 305-306)- a
process that happens when a minority will talk about a bill for so long that
the bill is not voted for or desired changes are not made.

Logrolling(SB
217)- trading of votes among lawmakers

Gerrymandering (SB 226-228, SB 231)-attempt to gain
partisan advantage by drawing districts of unusual shape or design, as desired
by Elbridge Gerry, signer of the Declaration of Independence and later governor
or Massachusetts